Basic Introduction to Pingyi Honeysuckle
Pingyi Honeysuckle is a traditional authentic medicinal material from the Yimeng Mountain Area, named after its main production area in Pingyi County, Shandong Province. Pingyi County, designated as “China's Honeysuckle Capital” by the Ministry of Agriculture, has a long history of cultivating honeysuckle, producing high-quality products with more and higher active components than those from other regions. Its output accounts for over half of China's total production, with an annual turnover exceeding 400 million RMB, making it the largest honeysuckle trading center in China.
Nutritional Value
Honeysuckle has been renowned for its medicinal value since ancient times. Its primary function is to clear heat and detoxify, treating fevers caused by warm diseases, heat-toxic bloody dysentery, carbuncles, and other conditions. Modern research confirms that honeysuckle contains pharmacologically active ingredients such as chlorogenic acid and luteolin glycoside, which have strong inhibitory effects on hemolytic streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus, and viruses causing upper respiratory tract infections. Additionally, it can enhance immunity, prevent early pregnancy, protect the liver, inhibit tumors, reduce inflammation, relieve fever, stop bleeding (promote coagulation), and inhibit the intestinal absorption of cholesterol. Its clinical applications are extensive, including the treatment of over 40 conditions such as respiratory tract infections, bacillary dysentery, acute urinary system infections, and hypertension, among others, when combined with other drugs.
Honeysuckle is cold in nature and sweet in taste, entering the lungs, heart, and stomach meridians. It clears heat and detoxifies, fights inflammation, replenishes deficiency, and treats wind-related symptoms. It primarily treats distention and lower digestive disorders, fevers caused by warm diseases, heat-toxic abscesses, and tumors. It also effectively treats dizziness, thirst, excessive sweating, irritability, enteritis, bacillary dysentery, pneumonia, Japanese encephalitis, cerebrospinal meningitis, acute mastitis, sepsis, appendicitis, skin infections, carbuncles, erysipelas, mumps, and purulent tonsillitis.
Decoction of honeysuckle vines can help treat eczema and other skin itching in children and has inhibitory effects on various pathogenic bacteria and viruses affecting livestock and poultry. Adding an appropriate dose of honeysuckle vine (lonicera stem) powder or decoction during animal feeding can effectively prevent and treat warm disease fevers, wind-heat colds, throat inflammation, pneumonia, dysentery, ulcers, erysipelas, and cellulitis in animals. Boiling forsythia and isatis root with honeysuckle can treat mumps; honeysuckle tea can relieve summer heat and improve vision. A cool decoction of forsythia and honeysuckle can treat externally contracted febrile coughs. Simmering honeysuckle, chrysanthemum, platycodon, and licorice in water for 10 minutes, letting it cool, and drinking it can treat pharyngitis and tonsillitis.
Product Characteristics
Pingyi Honeysuckle is characterized by large buds, pure color, fragrant aroma, and high chlorogenic acid content. According to tests conducted by the Shandong Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the volatile oil content in Pingyi Honeysuckle is 1.8 ‰, while the content in similar products from other regions is only 0.2-0.4 ‰. The chlorogenic acid content in honeysuckle reaches 5.87% (national standard content is 1.5%), which is unique in China and nearly 50 times that of other natural populations. Honeysuckle produced in this county contains 32 elements, while honeysuckle from other regions contains only two.
Awards and Honors
Pingyi County is the original habitat and main production area for honeysuckle in China.
In 1993, honeysuckle was designated as the county flower of Pingyi County.
In 1995, Pingyi Honeysuckle was awarded “China's Traditional Herbal Honeysuckle Quality Product” by the Ministry of Agriculture of China.
In March 1996, Pingyi County was named “China's Honeysuckle Capital.”
In March 2000, it was designated as “China's Famous and Special Economic Forest Honeysuckle Capital” by the State Forestry Administration.
In September 2007, Pingyi Honeysuckle passed the evaluation for geographical indication product by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China, becoming the first agricultural product in Linyi City to receive national geographical indication protection.